The Sheepscot Valley Chorus begins their 38th season with a potluck supper at 6 p.m. with a rehearsal at 7, on Tuesday, Sept. 11 at the Wiscasset Congregational Church on Route 1. With a long history of community music making, members of the Chorus welcome and encourage new singers to join us. Singers wishing to participate may call director Linda Blanchard at 207-380-2768, or simply come to the first rehearsal, voice ready.

The major work for Sheepscot Chorus this fall will be Felix Mendelssohn's stirring and intricate "Magnificat in D" for mixed voices and four soloists. Written in 1822, when the composer was 13, the work pays homage to the "Magnificat" settings of Johann Sebastian Bach and J.S. Bach's son Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach. The year before writing his "Magnificat in D," Mendelssohn so moved the poet Goethe with his talents that the great poet declared to Mendelssohn's teacher: "What your pupil already accomplishes bears the same relation to the Mozart of that time, that the cultivated talk of a grown-up person does to the prattle of a child." 

The December concert will also feature a mixture of classical works and lighter holiday fare, including the Leroy Anderson Christmas carol extravaganza "A Christmas Festival" which was played for many years by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops. Sheepscot Valley Chorus is directed by Linda Blanchard and accompanied by Sean Fleming, both of Damariscotta. The Chorus will perform their concert Sunday, Dec.  2  at 3 p.m. at the Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor.